Ruler's Capitol
The capitol of Ethax is the seat of Primus' power, and a marvel of art and design. Architecturally, it is the finest monument to the power of the arcane craft. The building is constructed as a tall and imposing tower which eschews corridors in favour of spiralling staircases. The tower is actually quite wide, but this is obscured by its height- especially for people who don't live with skyscrapers every day. From the inside, the Capitol building is designed to be a maze to disorient those unfamiliar as much as possible before they seek an audience; even Princes have a right to be petty. The Capitol building is divided into two sections; Palazzo Primus is the top half, and the bottom half is the noble hall. When Primus took power, he actually demanded that his headquarters be moved to above the noble houses; initially this seems more an act of arrogance than anything else, intended only to insult the old guard of the nobility. In reality, this was extremely shrewd, since it granted him access to their most privileged halls, including all of the juicy gossip in the corridors and the secret passages- as well as allowing the guild to lord it over the nobility. Primus has a specific elevator mechanism installed in his office which allows him to enter and exit with the minimum of fuss; he also has a specially padded elevator which allows him to (literally) drop in silently and interrupt meetings or surprise people. The staircase to his office is similarly exclusive, and Primus actually has a (private) telescope on the terrace to indulge his occasional taste for astronomy. At the apex of the building is the private office and study of Primus. This room is the most secretive, hidden behind layers of locked doors. The only person who has ever been in is Primus himself; various bigwigs claim to have been invited in, but nobody believes them, especially not themselves. The study is rumoured to be filled with all sorts of morbid and decadent things including an alchemical laboratory at one point. In reality it is more or less an archetypal study, with artwork and bookshelves on the walls. The only strange thing is the well-hidden secret passage to an underground area of the Capitol. The parliamentary council is located on the lower floor . This is where the decisions are made and laws are passed. This section of the building is far older than the Palace, and it shows. It is still amazingly ornate, but in a very different way. It is built to be Gothic and oppressive, with secret passages and alcoves everywhere; the only concession to modernity is the artwork which hangs on the wall; it still uses stairs to let people move between the various chambers, balconies, and floors. This section of the building seems to be bigger on the inside, managing to fit the hundred or so council members it does. It does this, again, through levels; the nobles preside from the balcony while the guildsmen and banking clan talk things over and take decisions. The library is one of the greatest rooms in the palace. It was originally part of but Primus had it moved up to 'his' region. The library is filled with predominantly practical works such as Vitruvius' 'On Architecture', and various contemporary treatises on engineering, both Ethaxian and foreign. It also houses collections of poetry in Greek and Italian and folios of sundry recovered Greco-Roman works. The library can be accessed by scholars on request, but the books are of inestimable value, and so anyone who damages or loses them suffers. The library is the largest room in the building in terms of area, and also the place where Primus often receives foreign important bigwigs personally. It is extremely well indexed and catalogued, even if there are some oddities or anomalies. Within the library, the most important document is a massive, decades-old archive of transcripts and miscellaneous odds and ends from official dealings, including reproductions or authentic diplomatic correspondence. In terms of logistics, the capitol has a massive administrative staff; most of the parliamentarians have their own personal staff, and the Primus guild has a small army. This secretariat has its own office and a dedicated messenger service between them and the main Capitol, as well as an interesting encryption method that uses a basic mathematical algorithm- the algorithm itself changes based on the content of the messages, making decrypting a tricky exercise, especially for those without the key and context. This algorithm is also partly a test; anyone insufficiently canny doesn't deserve to be part of the network. The secretariat itself has factions which map to the noble factions, as well as internal factions vying for promotion, power, swaps, etc. The precise details of this are both secret and complicated, and lie outside the scope of this article.